56 PEXTENEMENT FARM APR / MAY 2021 • farmers-mart . co . uk
Yorkshire Show accolades
‘ 10 per cent of the milk produced at
Eastwood goes into Pextenement Cheese Company ’ s range of artisan cheeses ’
at Little Valley Brewery nearby at Hebden Bridge . We ’ re good for him because we are using his waste and he ’ s good for us because it is all certified organic and means we don ’ t have to rely as much on concentrate .’
Alan and Sandra also have a Blonde d ’ Aquitaine bull for producing beef cattle , selling the bull calves at Skipton at between 6-10 weeks old . The bull calves from the MRI stock have a value at market . Heifers are sold to suckler farms .
‘ Our land runs to around 200 acres and is all regarded as seriously disadvantaged . It is down to permanent grass and between 600-950 ft above sea level . There ’ s not too much you can do with it . It is shallow loam with clay underneath . Dad always said ‘ keep it greenside up ’ meaning don ’ t plough it .’
‘ It is all in small fields on a steep hill where a lot of damage can be done to the land by the cows when it is wet . Our cows are out from mid-April until the end of October , although the young stock can be out until December if the land is good enough to sustain them . We calve all year round to maintain a level milk profile .’
Alan and Sandra milk together in a morning from 7am and in the evening it is down to one of them from 5pm plus either the apprentice who started recently , a work experience girl studying at Harper Adams or Alan and his wife Justine ’ s daughter Hannah when she ’ s not at university .
Alan said that he and Sandra had always been encouraged to get a ‘ proper ’ job away from the farm by way
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